THE owner of a leaky boat which sank at sea, resulting in the death of a fisherman, has been slammed in a report for failing to make the vessel safe.

Father-of-three Scott MacAlister, 40, who lived on the Isle of Luing, died when the prawn trawler Speedwell plunged to the seabed near Easdale island, south of Oban, in April.

His body has never been found and his family are pressing for the sunken boat to be raised. They have also called for a fatal accident inquiry.

A Marine Accident Investigation Branch report found that Speedwell’s owner John Connell, 54, had experienced problems with the boat taking on water. Their report said: “The risk of catastrophic down-flooding had not been addressed.

“Speedwell’s owner and skipper placed insufficient importance on safety and were prepared to accept and live with defects and substandard equipment.”

The report added that the boat hadn’t been checked by officials since 2009. They had made four recommendations to the owner to make safety a priority.

Scott’s dad Peter, 65, a retired boat builder and fisherman from Oban, said: “We’ve always accepted Scott has to carry some of the blame for using the boat in that condition but he was the crew. The equipment was out of date.”

He claims the Maritime Coastguard Agency failed to follow up on missed safety checks.

He said: “The owner was supposed to do a self-certification check on the boat every year but it was missed four times.”